“I’m looking for my mama… I mean my mother…”Īngela’s uncomfortable, stilted delivery when she speaks to James for the first time telegraphs her neurosis. It all begins in heavy fog, in a long-forgotten cemetery, with Angela scanning tombstones and searching for her mother. Set piece by set piece, the game shifts her from wide-eyed and neurotic young woman to a fiery and mentally anguished accuser who functions as a dark mirror for James. Angela’s story is a heartbreaking portrayal of childhood abuse and subsequent mental trauma unheard of in game narrative at the time - and unmatched even now. No character is more emblematic of this tonal shift than Angela Orosco, the first human James Sunderland meets upon beginning his search for his missing wife. Whereas they invoke the aesthetics of physical torture, blood, rust, and pain to an almost Barker-esque level, Silent Hill 2 takes the “softer” and moderately more cerebral route of guilt, disgust, emotional trauma, and decay: decay of one’s will to live, decay of the mind, decay of the soul, and decay of the surrounding world as you, yourself, wither away. Many attribute this to the dramatic difference in tone compared to the other mainline titles. Some enthusiasts may even argue it’s the greatest game of all time, no small feat for a title released in 2001. Silent Hill 2 is renowned as a masterpiece.
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